Swipe to navigate through the chapters of this book

Culture and Media

Culture is notoriously difficult to define since it is as self-referential a concept as they come (Eagleton, 2000). We use culture to shape culture: it is a tool that works on itself. Any definition is itself culturally configured and so endlessly contestable. The term has been used to encompass at least the following: values, belief-systems, norms, meanings, ways of life, social symbols, interpretative grids, codes and representations, histories, customs and conventions, language and discourse, aesthetics, ethics, religion, rituals, myths, social habits, assumptions and instincts, understandings, identities and divisions, popular attitudes and popular culture. Culture is we might say the way we do things around here.